Film Music in 'Minor' National Cinemas

Taking its cue from Deleuze's definition of minor cinema as one which engages in a creative act of becoming, this collection explores the multifarious ways that music has been used in the cinemas of various countries in Australasia, Africa, Latin America and even in Europe that have hitherto received little attention. The authors consider such film music with a focus on the role it has played creating, problematizing, and sometimes contesting, the nation.
Film Music in 'Minor' National Cinemas addresses the relationships between film music and the national cinemas beyond Hollywood and the European countries that comprise most of the literature in the field. Broad in scope, it includes chapters that analyze the contribution of specific composers and songwriters to their national cinemas, and the way music works in films dealing with national narratives or issues; the role of music in the shaping of national stars and specific use of genres; audience reception of films on national music traditions; and the use of music in emerging digital video industries.

Germán Gil-Curiel is Research Affiliate at University College Cork, Republic of Ireland, where he also teaches Latin American Music. An accomplished classical guitarist, his main research and teaching interests are on the relationship between music, film and literature. He is the author of A Comparative Approach: The Early European Supernatural Tale: Five Variations on a Theme (2011), and has published multiple book chapters and articles about music in film.

Chapter 1: Introduction: Film, Music & National Cinemas: Asia, Africa and Latin America
Germán Gil-Curiel, Sino-British College, Shanghai, China
Chapter 2: New Zealand Cinema, National Identity and Don McGlashan
Henry Johnson, University of Otago, New Zealand
Chapter 3: Chinese Identity and Total Art: Tan Dun's Aesthetics of Visual Music
Germán Gil-Curiel, Sino-British College, Shanghai, China
Chapter 4: The China Melody: Musical Invention of Borderless Fantasy on Japan's Imperial Screen
Chikako Nagayama, McMaster University, Canada
Chapter 5: Collective Nostalgia and Anxiety in Korean Film Music: Im Kwont'aek's Use of P'ansori in Sop'yonje
Jooyeon Rhee, Wittenberg University, USA
Chapter 6: 'Sobre las Olas', the Waltz and the Films: Classical Music and Mexican Identity
Armida de la Garza, Xian-Jiaotong Liverpool University, China
Chapter 7: Black Orpheus (1959) and Brazilian Identity
Hans Hess, University of Bristol, UK
Chapter 8: 'Yo soy un hombre sincero': Music and Nation-building in Cuban Cinema
Nicholas Balaisis, Concordia University, Canada
Chapter 9: 'Minor' Sounds in Flight: Musical Journeys as Collective Oral Histories and Archival Sights and Sounds in the Films of Bahman Ghobadi
Rowena Santos Aquino, California State University, Long Beach, USA
Chapter 10: High and Low: Popular Music in Portuguese Film
Carolin Overhoff Ferreira, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil
Chapter 11: Between the Ceremonial and the Musical: Music and African Identity in the Films of Flora Gomes
Carolin Overhoff Ferreira, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil
Chapter 12: Between the Text and the Subtext: A Reading of Selected Benin Musical Video-Films from Nigeria
Osakue S. Omoera, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and Charles O. Aluede, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Notes on Contributors
Glossary
Index